Maplewood | White Bear Lake | Mahtomedi | Willernie | Birchwood

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Bio

I was raised and still live in Maplewood and have a deep commitment to the area. I have been married for 25 years to my wife Kristi, who works for the University of Minnesota. I have three children and all have attended local public schools. Emily is a graduate from Hamline University. Hannah graduated from The School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota. Peter graduated from Hamline University and works at the Department of Commerce and as a paid on-call Firefighter/Paramedic/EMT for White Bear Lake.

I am currently the Representative for House Seat 43A.

Legislative Committees

Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance

Health and Human Services Reform

Subcommittee on Licensing

Veterans Affairs Division

Professional Career

My professional career is extensive. The first 30 years of my career was spent in private club management.

In 2007, I changed career paths and was hired by Avenues for Homeless Youth as Director of Finance and Operations to help restore financial accuracy and stability. Avenues is a small nonprofit serving homeless youth that was in financial difficulty because of state funding cuts. When I started at Avenues there was a large amount of debt and for a number of months we barely had enough money to make payroll. I am proud to say that within two years we were generating surpluses and had even established a reserve.

Success continued and we expanded from 15 to 20 beds and have added several more programs to help meet the needs of homeless youth ages 16 to 21. We are also in the process of expanding our services and partnering with new organizations to expand service. Still, Wilder Research estimates that, on any night in the state of Minnesota, over 4,000 youth and young adults are homeless and unaccompanied by an adult on any day.

DFL- and labor-endorsed candidate for Minnesota's House of Representatives in District 43A, which is comprises portions of Maplewood, White Bear Lake, Mahtomedi, Willernie, and all of Birchwood Village.